On the same day that a German court rejected Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)’s attempt to fight its classification as a “suspected extremist” group, authorities—using the pretext of his alleged connections with a now-defunct Ukrainian exile website—German authorities conducted a search of the home of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) MEP Petr Bystron—the twenty-second such search.
This time, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the search also included an old warehouse where Bystron ran a business over a decade ago.
“This is targeted terror against the opposition,” Bystron said in a press release. “There is no other way to classify the absurd behavior of the authorities.”
The fact that house searches are conducted based on mere rumors—launched by foreign interest media directly or indirectly funded by USAID—is a devastating testament to the state of the rule of law in Germany. Every single one of these 22 house searches was illegal. Each one was a step on Germany’s path away from a democratic state governed by the rule of law—toward an authoritarian regime that silences critical voices by any means necessary.
The accusations against Bystron started last spring—at the peak of the EU election campaign—when Czech authorities cast suspicions on politicians from six EU member states (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Poland) who they claimed had accepted cash from the news outlet Voice of Europe (VoE) in exchange for interviews.
Bystron’s was the only name made public.
The Czech authorities claimed to be in possession of a voice recording implicating Bystron, but the tape has never been released, despite the entire AfD demanding the Czechs make it public. No prosecution has been launched against anyone to date.
Bystron, perhaps more than anyone in the AfD party, has strong connections with America and the Trump administration. At the time of the raid, he was in Washington, D.C., holding meetings with congressmen, senators, and allies of President Trump and VP JD Vance.
The timing of the raid could be seen as a message to the U.S. administration: the German establishment has no respect for the conservative movement growing and thriving on both sides of the Atlantic.
The AfD is currently polling even with chancellor Merz’s CDU at 25%—and has picked up 4.2 percentage points, while the CDU has lost 3.5, since the election.
